{"id":19892,"date":"2022-04-27T09:26:13","date_gmt":"2022-04-27T13:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=19892"},"modified":"2022-04-28T05:42:25","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T09:42:25","slug":"off-to-camp-we-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2022\/04\/off-to-camp-we-go\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Off To Camp We Go!:’ A Brick Mom Finds Summer Plans for Her Teen With Autism"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The letter was stuck amongst a bunch of bills, but as soon as I saw the name on the envelope I eagerly dropped the less exciting mail on the counter and ripped open the top. After quickly scanning I saw that my eldest son Justin, who is almost nineteen and profoundly autistic, was accepted for the first time to sleep away camp.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I wasn\u2019t sure he\u2019d get in, but he made it, my boy.<\/p>\n

This will be a big deal for Justin, and yes I\u2019m worried that it\u2019s too much of a stretch for him, but I feel we have to try. The only place Justin has slept outside of his bed in the last few years is a condo at Disney, and even then a parent was in the bed next to him. He\u2019s enjoyed this camp before as a day camper, and since it\u2019s the only way he can enjoy the camp as right now they\u2019re not doing day camp, his dad and I felt like we had to give it a shot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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To say I\u2019m nervous is a gross understatement.<\/p>\n

The truth is, with a few of my friends we are in the process of trying to create a residential placement for Justin and their sons, and I just can\u2019t see my boy being successful sleeping in a new environment if all he\u2019s ever known is his own bedroom. We\u2019ve started working on trying to teach him where he goes each day- his teacher has a calendar at school, and we are using one at home (it\u2019s Trolls, he loves it). Justin is non-verbal, but he can nod yes or no, and when I point to the space and ask him for that day if he\u2019s going to school or staying home so far he\u2019s gotten it right all week, so I\u2019m hoping he understands.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I think the thing my husband and I worry about the most is that he\u2019ll think he\u2019s never coming home, and that would break our hearts.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got pictures of him at this camp from years past, so I\u2019ll create a social story for him that ends up with him coming home, so hopefully he\u2019ll get it. Hopefully he\u2019ll sleep there- he\u2019s a great sleeper at home, so fingers are crossed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And while I\u2019m fully prepared that we\u2019ll get a phone call the first night around 9:00 telling us to come get him, I\u2019m also embracing the possibility that we won\u2019t- that he likes this camp enough that he\u2019ll comply. Justin is going to have a lot of changes coming up in the next two years, like graduating from his beloved school and starting a day program. These are huge detours in his life- I\u2019m hoping that by starting with little changes he\u2019ll be more ready for the life- altering ones.<\/p>\n

We have a few months to prepare him, and I\u2019m hoping the camp lets me bring him up beforehand to see where he\u2019ll sleep, as he hasn\u2019t been there in three years and it would be nice to familiarize him with the place again. I\u2019m nervous and excited for him all at the same time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It\u2019s time to try something new. Wish us luck!<\/p>\n

For more on my family visit my blog at autismmommytherapist.wordpress.com<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow me on Facebook at Autism Mommy-Therapist <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0 The letter was stuck amongst a bunch of bills, but as soon as I saw the name on the envelope I eagerly dropped the less exciting mail on the counter and ripped open the top. After quickly scanning I saw that my eldest son Justin, who is almost nineteen and profoundly autistic, was accepted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":19893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,12],"tags":[293,295,294,24,4484,4641],"class_list":["post-19892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-in-brick","category-ocean-county","tag-autism","tag-autism-acceptance","tag-autism-awareness","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-featured","tag-sleepaway-camp"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/J-Horseback-Riding-003-scaled.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-5aQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}